It looks like Hotmail will very soon be a thing of the past. MS has decided to rename the service Outlook, and at the same time give it a facelift and do away with the most annoying feature; the picture ads on the right edge of the interface. It is yet another innovation for MS this year, where SkyDrive (becoming a personal favorite of mine) gets better Web App equivalents to MS Office, and incorporates a slicker Google Drive style approach to free storage and document sharing.
I have had the sneaking suspicion over the last few months (starting with Windows Phone 7.5) that Microsoft has finally discovered the movement to mobile and apps-based computing. This is just another step in the company creating a series of online applications that are becoming increasingly consistent and unified with the MS desktop presence. Will they out-Google Google in this area? It remains to be seen, with a lot riding on the acceptance of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, both of which will be released this Fall.
Now the next question is when MS will introduce apps for iPad, OSX, and Android devices that are consistent with the functionality of the browser-based experience. This would create a complete package that could be the best available.
No comments:
Post a Comment